Cleaning composition with alpha fluorescent concentration indicator



l atented May 11-, 1926.

UNITE STATES PATENT F'lCE...-

LEONARD H. ENGLUND, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

I70 Drawing.

This invention relates to a non-saponaceous cleaning composition with a fluorescent concentration indicator, its object being particularly to provide improvements in connection with certain non-saponaceous alkaline cleaning compositions of it normally colorless character in solution that will indicate to the user the strength of the amount of such composition being used.

In soaps, whether they be colorless or colored, the soapy or saponaceous characteristics of the compound indicate to the user the strength of the amount of the compound placed in use so that from those characteristics the user is informed whether too little or too much of the compound is being used.

I have found in the use of certain alkaline cleaning compositions of a non-saponaceous character which yield clear and colorless solutions having the same appearance as water, that -great difiiculty is encountered by the user in determining the minimum eflicient amounts which will accomplish the desired result.

I have found that by giving this normally clear and colorless solution the properties of reflecting and transmitting light in proportion to the strength of the solution, the user will thereby be caused to instinctively use the'proper amount of the solution in proportion to the cleaning operation, the degree of strength being fixed-in the users mind by the reaction to the depth of color or light reflecting property.

My invention is particularly adapted to a non-saponaceous cleaning compound, as of tri-sodium phosphate and ammonium salts, as ammonium chloride or ammonium sulphate, that dissolved in water will produce a clear, colorless, or substantially so, nonsaponaceous cleaning compound. In the preferred mixture of my compound I use ninety-eight per cent by weight of granular trisodium phos hate and two per cent by weight of granu ar ammonium chloride. To this compound in its dry state I add diresorcinolphthalein (tetra-oxyphthalophenonanhydride) or the derivatives thereof, in

Application filed September 22, 1924. Serial No. 739,205. U

the ratio of one to three thousand-to one to five thousand parts by weight of diresorcinolphthalein (tetra-oxyphthalophenonanhydride) to the cleaning compound.

'Ihis gives the compound a pinkish color, which, when the compound is mixed with water, turns to a greenish color' of a depth and reflecting and light transmitting characteristics proportioned to the amount of mixture placed in the water and, indicate to the user, without the necessity of measuring, the

strength of the solution.

I am aware that itis old to add to transparent soap fluorescent bodies so that the cake of soap will have a leasing appearance, but the objects of my invention are not achieved in a soap thus treated. The-soapy or saponaceous characteristics of the soap are in that case the indication of the amount of soap being used. The fluorescent body has in the manufacture of the soap assumed lts approximate full depth of color or fluorescent quantities and when the soap thus treated is used, the contained fluorescent body constitutes no indication of the strength of the amount of soap being used. It is, of course, not necessary that there be such an indication in a compound of a saponaceous character, as the very saponaceous characteristics give the desired indication. My compound, while constituting a softener for the water and possessed of cleaning properties, yet is entirely of a non-saponaceous character and there is no indication of strength in proportion to the quantities being used except that caused by the fluorescent element.

Vhat I claim is:

A new. composition of matter, consisting of a non-saponaceous alkaline cleaning compound that will form a colorless solution upon the adding of water and a fluorescent body added to said compound in its dry stat-e in the substantial proportion of one to three thousand to one to five thousand parts by weight of the fluorescent body to the remainder of the compound.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

LEONARD H. ENGLUND. 

